Open source: not always a successful course - (blog) #opensource

In my early-October discussion of tech simplification at my former primary home , I'd mentioned that I was able to dispense with my powerline networking setup. But when I re-visited the CA residence a couple of weekends ago, I realized I'd forgotten about one particular node; my Power Mac G4 Cube upstairs . Instead of resurrecting a powerline spur, which would have necessitated a re-expansion beyond my solitary eight-port switch at the router, I instead decided to connect the G4 Cube to the LAN via an Ethernet-to-Wi-Fi bridge. I had an old US Robotics USR5430 802.11g adapter sitting out in the garage that I attempted to use (and had successfully used in the past with simpler previous Wi-Fi setups), but in spite of the fact that the product packaging claimed WPA encryption support, the stock v3.51.21.0.3 firmware only comprehended WEP. I subsequently installed the "beta" v3...